Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1930)

January II, 1950 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 17 Will Erpi Go Out on Its Own? New Giant Has Growing Pains Try These Figures On Your Statisticator Electrical Research Products, Inc., boasts 4,000 employes, 2,500 of whom are located in the United States. It has 300 engineers in the field making installations. It has a hundred technical inspectors checking up on these same installations. It also has three sound schools, one for the making of installation engineers, one for those who have been in the field and aspire to become technical inspectors and a third, graduate affair, for the technical inspectors themselves. Erpi also has 70 amplifying channels, 100 disc machines, 60 61m recorders, 65 newsreel trucks and 25 location wagons. It's Just Too Awful Bad When You Try to Be N ice And Have This Happen! It Seems That Wilstach Said Something About "Tight As a Tabloid Columnist" and Then — (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Jan. 7.— Frank J. Wilstach, who might be described as the buffer-state between the Hays organization and the press, has got himself involved in a pretty controversy. And all because he tried to be nice! Every New Year Day, as sure as eggnog. Uncle Frank gives out a list of the smartest and snappiest similes pulled during the year. All you have to do is say something like "I feel like a wet dish-rag" and he has his little pencil and notebook out, to jot the thing down and save it for official pronouncement when the right time comes. "Tight as a Tabloid Columnist" This year — only the other day, though it seems like years ago — Dr. Wilstach announced'that one of the brilliant nifties of the year was the simile, "Shut up as tight as a tabloid columnist at five a. m." Franklin Pierce Adams, who conducts the celebrated Conning Tower column in the New York World over the initials F. P. A., was remembered by Wilstach as the man who pulled it. And so Wilstach honored F. P. A. by including this bon mot, or bon phrase, in the list. And was F. P. A. duly pleased? Look What Happened Listen to this, written in Adams' own particular brand of green ink: "In accordance with his annual custom, Mr. Frank J. Wilstach has issued a few pages of 'The Best Similes of 1929.' Among them, credited to us, is 'Shut up as tight as a tabloid columnist at five a. m.' We never said it; we never wrote it; we are incapable of having thought it, as to us it has no significance whatever. We never have seen a tabloid columnist at five a. m. ; we never have seen a tabloid columnist tight; Mr. Walter Winchell, the only t. c. we have ever seen more than once, does not, as far as we know, drink anything stronger than coffee. We defy Mr. Wilstach to show the verse or paragraph of ours from which the silly simile was taken." Will Do 40 Millions Business To Double Its Growth of 1929 Total of 4,212 Theatres Equipped with Western Electric Sound — And Erpi Does the Okaying By PETER VISCHER NEW YORK, Jan. 7. — Erpi, that powerful factor in the motion picture industry with the forgettable name and the curious nickname — otherwise Electrical Research Products, Incorporated — is feeling growing pains. And these growing pains may have their effect upon the entire industry. P>pi, who sounds like a medieval giant, has turned out to be a modern one. Entering the film industry less than three years ago, May 21, 1927, Erpi grew last year into a $20,000,000 organization. This year Erpi will report a business of between $40,000,000 and $50,000,000 for 1929, which is dough in any man's money. Erpi ought to be a baby, withal a husky one. Erpi is only a subsidiary, a subsidiary of the vast Western Electric organization. Erpi manufactures nothing, but distributes and sells (with spectacular success, need it be told?) the sound equipment manufactured by Western Electric. And Erpi last week issued a list of 4,212 theatres equipped with "The Voice of Action," to say nothing of fourteen producer licensees. And Otterson Is a Fox Trustee Now, Western Electric itself is a part of the huge system of business, industry and communications built up by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. And this great organization, feared and avoided upon its entry into the motion picture field, has more than once officially and smilingly announced that it has no intention of doing a picture business. As a result, Erpi has grown in importance and power. When a decision affecting motion picture business is made, the decision is made at 250 West 57th street, which is the office of Erpi, and not at 195 Broadway, which is the office of Western Electric. When an official communique is prepared down town, it is taken up town for OK. Need I say more than that John E. Otterson, the head of Erpi, was the particular individual called in to be come one of the three trustees of the vast Fox enterprises. A year ago, when Western Electric did a business of $287,000,000, the total represented by Erpi was a good bit less than 10 per cent, $20,000,000. Last year, the Western Electric total mounted, true, to $400,000,000 or thereabouts, but the Erpi contribution was 10 per cent or more, as the figures will in time show. Obviously, Erpi is feeling growing pains. Under the keen and close-mouthed direction of Otterson, a business organization of enviable efficiency has: been built up. Four men of particular helpfulness surrounded Otterson : Whitf ord Drake, his right-hand man ; James J. Lyng, vice president in charge of engineering; H. D. Knox, vice president in charge of West Coast studios, recently brought from abroad; and C. W. Bunn, sales manager. Should Erpi suddenly, or after mature consideration, decide to go out on its own (despite half-hearted denials that any such move is contemplated) it would not surprise those in the know. Nor would it be unprecedented. The Graybar organization, once a Western Electric subsidiary, recently went out on its own; this outfit sold and distributed toasters, waffle-irons, radios manufactured by Western Electric, so the analogy is not as far-fetched as it might seem. New Projectionists' Demands Would Mean Wage Increase of 15 Per Cent Demands by projectionists which are estimated to represent a wage increase of 15 per cent, and exhibitors' proposals which would mean a considerable decrease in the present projection room labor cost, featured the negotiations begun last week by Chicago exhibitors and the projectionists' union, following expiration of their two-year contract. This year the union was forced to negotiate with two general exhibitor groups, the newly formed Illinois Independent Exhibitors Association, as well as the Jack Miller organization, the Chicago Exhibitors Association. Whatever the terms of the new contract, they will be the same for both groups, according to Tom Malloy, union head. One of the reasons the new exhibitor organization was formed, according to Aaron Saperstein, president, is to effect operating arrangements without the chain and deluxe theatre influence, said to be present in the older association. The union demands, in addition to the present conditions, a six-day week with seven days' pay; an additional operator in de luxe theatres; and pay for the halfhour required to prepare equipment for the performance. These demands were met last week by the Chicago Exhibitors Association with a proposal for the calculation of fractional hours in quarter-hours, not half -hours ; for the care of batteries to be done on regular time; for one operator only in theatres with merely sound-on-film equipment; one operator only to assist an engineer called in for inspection ; payment for such assistance only according to hours devoted to it; reduction in scale of permit men to $15 under that for card men; reduction in scale for small downtown houses.